John Clark

John Clark was baptised in 1744 in Roxburghshire. He studied at Edinburgh University from 1760, but left without a formal qualification. Clark then became apprenticed to a surgeon in Kelso before undertaking further medical study in Edinburgh and London. In 1768 he worked as a surgeon's mate for the East India Company. This position formed the basis of the research for one of his key works 'Observations on the Diseases in Long Voyages to Hot Countries' (1773). Clark was subsequently awarded MD by St Andrews University in 1773 before establishing his practice, first in Kelso and then in Newcastle. Clark was also a prominent public health campaigner, founding the Newcastle Dispensary in 1777 and developing and promoting smallpox inoculation programmes in the city. In 1788, he joined Newcastle Infirmary and played an important role in the modernisation and redevelopment of that institution. Clark died in Bath in 1805.